Can anyone tell me what looks better than a freshly slipped pot?
Thrown & Cut Vases
Along with the big pots from yesterday I’ve spent the last couple of days playing around with cutting up thrown cylinders into triangular vases. In the past when I’ve altered the forms into square or oval I’ll just run my fingers up the inside of the pot and change the shape from within. I wanted to see what kind of sharper definitions of forms that I could get with this new method. It’s definitely adding to the time on each piece, but everything seems to be going in that direction with my work anyways.
Well…here is a basic cylinder form to start.
After it set up for a while I cut as straight a line as I could…
With 2 sections gone I had to figure out a way to not let that last piece fall
Here are a few other forms I cut up. I wanted to see how the form variations in the outer two cylinders would translate to the cut forms.
And here are some of the assembled forms. The one on the left was cut into 4 pieces so it is obviously a squared vase but the others are triangular. I’m excited for the glazing opportunities with the different planes on each piece.
The only question is why don’t I make them with slabs….but, I just love the energy from the wheel…especially when you alter the form and see those little variations of the throwing lines change from the different sides. Now I just need to clean them up a bit…sweeten up the rims and get some slip on them.
Posted in Uncategorized on 05/01/2008 02:48 pm | Comments Off on Thrown & Cut Vases
Throwing Big Pots
I decided to try throwing some bigger pots again today. The tallest is about 22 inches tall. As usual, I did them in sections. It’s been a while since I’ve worked on this scale and I’m thinking of trying a couple more tomorrow. I also played around with some thrown, cut and re-assembled forms. I’ll get some pictures of them up tomorrow after I get them cleaned up. The slab bases for them are stiffening up overnight so that should be first on the agenda in the morning.
Evangelina and I spent a good portion of the day truly getting ready to open. Cleaning, vacuuming, making sure that the glass shelves are nice and clean. I also have been playing around with our new computer system for the shop. We are a Mac family here and in the fall I purchased a Mac based point-of-sale program. Last year we had so many different artists in the gallery it got a little confusing keeping track of it all with just quickbooks and excel spreadsheets. I’m still figuring the new program out but it does seem pretty great. The only downside is I have spent an awful lot of time doing basic data entry so that we can inventory everything coming in.
The strange thing is that I’m actually inventorying my work too. As a potter, I’ve always made my work, fired it and sold it. Using a nice little sales slip pack from Staples I would write down the date and whatever sold and that was it. With this program I’m actually entering each piece in…it even has a picture of each piece…at least the ones that I’ve been photographed already.
The program is great for carrying other people’s work. I’m really intrigued to follow specifically where my pieces are going.
The other nice thing is I’m looking to upload all of these pieces to our website in an online store area. Not just a click here to email me about the work like I have now but online with a shopping cart and checkout. I’ve never been sure about selling work online but, I’m curious to try it out. Anyone had any success selling pots online? Never seemed like an easy venture to try. I’ve always thought that customers…especially new customers need to see the actual piece before they brought it into their home.
Oh, and it took about 11 months to get the picture but here is Clara Isabella following in a long tradition of potters’ children….
Posted in Uncategorized on 05/01/2008 01:57 am | Comments Off on Throwing Big Pots
Studio Time…
I got my clay delivery today. Clean studio…new clay….should be a good week. I made a few mugs over the weekend with the clay I had left. After lunch I was able to get some handles on them. I just need to let them set up a bit and then clean ’em up. Maybe I’ll try some new slip decorating on them.
As I said previously, all of this work is going into my reduction kiln which I haven’t fired in ages. It’s a very different process than getting ready to fire wood or salt so I’m curious to see how these next couple of weeks go. I guess we’ll see….
Anyways…here are a couple of pics of the mugs.
Posted in Uncategorized on 04/29/2008 05:01 pm | Comments Off on Studio Time…
916 Springdale Rd. Building 2, Suite 104, Austin, TX 78702
